5 Easy Ways to Reduce Video Size on iOS

Jeffry Thurana

7 months ago

There’s no doubt that iPhone cameras are among the best phone cameras out there. And with each iPhone iteration, Apple always ups the game. That is all good as users will get better photo and video quality from their iPhones. But the increased picture quality comes with a price: file size.

Better quality means bigger file size, and this is especially true for videos which are considerably larger compared to photos and text files. Not only will the size affect phone storage, it will also make file sharing less convenient. Some services like WhatsApp limits the item size that users can send via their network. And even if they don’t, sending large files also eats up your data and bandwidth faster than a sponge drain the milk spill.

For those with a tight budget data plan, it’s more economical to reduce the video size before sharing it. That’s why we need ways to reduce video size when using iOS. Apple’s move to the new HEIF format is a big step in addressing the size problem. But at the moment the compatibility rate to the format is still low. So we still have to rely on the old-fashioned way to compress video size.

Here are some ways to reduce video size when using iOS.

Playing with the Settings

Most of the time the best course of action is to handle the problem before it becomes a problem. In this case it is better to tweak the camera settings so that the videos that you took with your iPhone are small enough and won’t eat up your storage space.

Unfortunately, you need to delve deep into the iOS settings to change the video quality, as Apple doesn’t provide an easy way to do so from the Camera app itself. This is the reason why most users doesn’t even know they can change the video quality.

1. Open “Settings” and scroll down a little bit to find “Camera.”

2. Inside the camera settings, go inside “Record Video” and choose the video quality option you want. The available choices will depend on the type of iPhone you have. Older generations will have less choices.

And while you’re at it, you can also change the quality of your slow motion recording by going into the “Record Slo-mo.”

Using Telegram Tricks

One of the easiest tricks to reduce video size is to send the video to yourself using Telegram. The app gives users options to choose the video compression quality before sending it.

After choosing the video to send, tap the video quality icon and choose the one you want. Telegram will remember this choice and use it as the default the next time you send another video unless you choose another setting.

Apple’s Messages also auto compresses the videos sent using the app. The problem is you won’t know the statistics of the process. The only way to know how much you’ve saved is to compare the original file with the one sent via Messages. Similar things could be said about other messaging services that employ video the auto compression feature.

Using Video Compressing Apps

If you want more control to the compression process, you could use one of the many video compressor apps available on the App Store. Take a quick trip to the App Store on your iOS device and search for “video compressor.” You will have plenty to choose from.

For example, a free app called Video Compress will give you options to choose video quality preset, adjust bitrate, and whether you want to keep the original or not. You will also get tons of information along the way.

Using Online Apps

If you don’t have problems with the Internet connection and data cap, you could use one of the online video compression services. As with the video compression apps, there are tons of them available.

For example, VideoSmaller allows you to reduce video size either by uploading to their server or by pointing it to the video URL as long as the size doesn’t exceed 500 MB. The service also allows you to resize the video and supports a wide range of video file formats.

Using the Computer

Last but not the least, if you don’t mind moving your videos from your phone to computer and back to the phone, and you want to utilize more processing power and editing options, you could use one (or more) of the desktop video compressing apps.

macOS has iMovie, and Windows comes with Movie Maker as the default movie editor. You can use those apps to reduce movie size. For example, in iMovie you can import a video and then choose the video settings on the “Share -> File” menu.

You can also use video conversion tools such as the multi-platform HandBrake to import and convert the video to a smaller size. Video experts could play around with the many settings of HandBrake, but normal users could just choose one of the available presets and let the app do what it does best.

Do you have other tricks to reduce video size on iOS? Share them using the comments below.